Marking the Jews in Renaissance Italy: Politics, Religion, and the Power of Symbols

by Flora Cassen

It is a little known fact that as early as the thirteenth century, Europe's political and religious powers tried to physically mark and distinguish the Jews from the rest of society. During the Renaissance, Italian Jews first had to wear a yellow round badge on their chest, and then later, a yellow beret. The discriminatory marks were a widespread phenomenon with serious consequences for Jewish communities and their relations with Christians. Beginning with a sartorial study - how the Jews were marked on their clothing and what these marks meant - the book offers an in-depth analysis of anti-Jewish discrimination across three Italian Milan, Genoa, and Piedmont. Moving beyond Italy, it also examines the place of Jews and Jewry law in the increasingly interconnected world of Early Modern European politics.

ebook

Published July 12, 2017

Reviews

[Alison]

Cassen shows that the threat to compel Jews to wear a badge or other distinguishing clothing was often a bargaining chip in complex power struggles between the dukes, the city councils, the friars, and the Jews.